Author Archives: Maren

Community Supported Agriculture

As noted in an earlier post, my husband and I are dedicated locavores who regularly patronize the Beaverton Farmer’s Market. I love milling around the fruit and vegetable stands, and it is great fun to interact casually with all the other locals who share our enthusiasm.

Our favorite weekly pastime has been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. The usual crowds will not allow for a safe distance to prevent viral transmission. We don’t want to roll the dice and hope that we’ll avoid infection or weather it successfully should we succumb. Since we’re still committed to supporting local farmers, our next best strategy is to buy a share in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

Farmers create CSAs to establish patronage for their wares. In return for advance payment for a season’s worth of produce, they provide a weekly allotment of fruits, vegetables, flowers, or other items at designated pick-up locations. This arrangement helps them manage their cash flow and handle marketing efforts before spending really long days in the field. Their shareholders get ultra-fresh, ultra-healthy, chemical-free food along with exposure to new vegetables and new ways of cooking. They also develop relationships with the farmers who grow their food.

In the best of all worlds, farmers receive a great income for their labors, and shareholders reap the bounty of a delicious harvest for however long the season lasts. Should nature conspire against the farmers and yields run lower than anticipated, shareholders agree explicitly to get a little less value for their dollars. That’s where the “support” comes into community supported agriculture. It’s a commitment to support local farmers in plenty and in want. I think it’s a fair and reasonable deal. They put themselves on the line every year to provide for our bodily nourishment. It’s only right that we put our dollars on the line to provide for their financial security.

Whether you are a patron of a farmer’s market or a CSA shareholder, you are in partnership with Mother Earth and the future generations that she’ll support. By purchasing organically grown, locally produced fruits and vegetables, you’ll contribute to:

Attentive care of the soil on which life depends: According to a Cornell University study, it takes 20 years for less than a millimeter of soil to replenish itself naturally. Organic farmers help Mother Nature along by ensuring that they do not needlessly deplete the soil’s nutrients and by planting nutrient-rich cover crops to replenish this living organism. Cover crops also protect the land from top soil run-off. According to the United Nations, poor soil management globally accounts for loss of a third of the world’s arable land and could reach a point of crisis within the next few decades.

Protection of our groundwater and marine habitats: According to the US Geological Survey, roughly 25 metric tons of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium flood U.S. soils annually to boost yields. The excess leaches into the soil and contaminates our groundwater. Moreover, the runoff contributes to algae blooms in our major waterways, oceans, and the Gulf of Mexico which disrupt our marine ecosystems.

Reduction in use of pesticides and herbicides: According to the NIH National Library of Medicine, the U.S. consumes ~1 billion tons of pesticide annually, and in 2014 alone, farmers sprayed enough glyphosate to apply 0.8 pounds per acre of cultivated cropland. While these products boost yields, they carry a hidden cost in the integrity of our natural resources and our health.

Reduction in CO₂ emissions and their attendant impact on global warming: Food travels within 50-100 miles of your table, not hundreds of miles by plane, train, or automobile.

Tens of thousands of families have joined CSAs over the past few decades. In fact, they’re so popular in the Pacific Northwest that I had a difficult time finding a farmer who had available shares for purchase. Suffice it to say, I’m glad that I finally got off the dime and signed up for a June through October season. It does the planet, the farmer, and my household good!

What Science Has Told Me About COVID-19

As an alumnus of UC San Diego, I’ve had the privilege of attending two webinars recently on the coronavirus pandemic courtesy of Dr. Robert “Chip” Schooley, a professor and researcher at the UCSD Medical School. I’ve also checked out a couple of articles that inform my current perspective. Here’s what I discovered.

The Chinese Health Ministry has shared data regarding infection rates and disease severity. Risk factors for morbidity include older age, hypertension, chronic lung disease, diabetes, and obesity. Researchers are evaluating the degree to which drugs used to treat these conditions might have an impact on the presentation of the disease.

While this chart is instructive, the US experience may deviate given differences in general health and lifestyles between the populations. Morbidity may also be affected by access to healthcare facilities for the gravely ill.

The disease takes root initially in the lungs. It takes awhile before viral agents manifest in the nasal and pharyngeal cavities, the sites where current tests check for infection. As such, a person could test negative for COVID-19 simply because the virus has not yet migrated to the upper respiratory tract.

Viral shedding begins 2 or more days before symptoms appear and persists throughout the course of the disease (see below). Widespread testing in Iceland revealed that half of the persons infected with COVID-19 did not manifest symptoms whatsoever. Bottom line: You, your friends, family members, co-workers, et al may feel fine yet you could still be carriers of the disease and infect others. Keep your distance and wear personal protective equipment!

This unfortunate reality plagued a 120-voice community choir at its final rehearsal on March 10, 2020. Sixty choristers showed up for practice, none of whom had the slightest indication of illness. Chairs were set apart widely to give each singer ample breathing room. No one touched or hugged other members. Yet 45 attendees took ill, 27 tested positive for COVID-19, and two died from complications related to the disease.

You don’t have to be in close contact with an infected party to contract the virus. The virus can survive in aerosol form (i.e., suspended in the air) for upwards of 2 hours. It can also remain viable on inanimate objects for hours to days after deposit from a human host. If someone else touches the infected surface and then touches his or her face, the virus can establish itself in the new host. Word to the Wise: Wash your hands vigorously immediately after contact with a suspect object. Disinfect surfaces. Don’t touch your face!

Most states have placed restrictions on its citizens’ movements, closed non-essential business establishments, and denied gatherings in excess of 10 people. They’ve asked folks to “shelter in place” to the maximum extent possible. They want to tamp down the spread of the disease and make sure that our health care systems can accommodate persons with severe viral symptoms. Here’s why:

I don’t know if we’ll be able to hold infection rates to 20% over an 18-month period, but our household will do its part to make that objective a reality.

Meanwhile, there are multiple immunology groups around the country working on vaccines as well as treatment options for those who become infected. UCSD is active in this pursuit. Moreover, the UCSD School of Engineering is exploring options for 3-D printing of face masks and the use of UV light to sterilize used masks. They are also looking at ways to speed the production of ventilators.

A return to normalcy rests in the hands of able scientists and researchers. As Dr. Schooley said: “The virus will continue to circulate unless we get a vaccine to get it under control.

Harvard Weighs in on Nutrition

I just finished reading an article¹ about Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He and his colleagues created the following Healthy Eating Plate based on the best available scientific evidence:

Vegetables: Eat lots of them – the greater the variety the better. Potatoes, French fries, and tater tots don’t count.

Fruits: Eat plenty of fruits of all colors.

Whole Grains: Eat a variety of whole grains; limit refined grains (e.g., white rice, white bread).

Healthy Protein: Choose fish, poultry, beans, and nuts; limit red meat and cheese. Avoid bacon, cold cuts, and processed meats.

Water: Drink water, tea, of coffee with little to no sugar. Limit milk/dairy and juice. Avoid sugary drinks.

Healthy Oils: Use modest amounts of olive oil or canola oil for cooking and in salads, as needed. Limit butter. Avoid trans fats.

Unlike the U.S. Government’s Eating Plat, the Harvard version does not have a specific provision for dairy, and it places far greater emphasis on vegetables.

Dr. Hu and his colleagues are as concerned about our health as they are the health of the planet (which are, of course, inexorably intertwined). According to the article, food production accounts for 80% of deforestation, 70% of fresh water use, and 30% of human-generated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Meat and dairy production account for 80% of the food industry’s GHG. Moreover, it takes 11 times more fossil fuels to produce a single unit of animal protein than it takes to produce a comparable amount of grain-based protein.

If eating meat were deemed healthy, there’d be a painful trade-off between bolstering human health and bearing the environmental cost. But it turns out that meat isn’t that healthy. Findings from the 2012 Health Professionals Follow-Up Study and Nurses’ Health Study revealed that increasing one’s consumption of meat by a single serving per day elevates morbidity risk by 13-20%.

Hu has published several papers on plant-based diets but claims that it does not have to be vegan or vegetarian. As I’ve read elsewhere, meat as a condiment instead of prominent occupant of the plate seems to be alright (though processed meats are not good!)

Hu and his colleagues face an uphill battle in gaining governmental traction on their recommendations. Powerful political and commercial interests stand in their way. And, to be sure, there are still randomized, double-blind studies to be done to solidify their research. But as Hu says: “Globally, if we always just wait for the absolute proof or conclusive evidence, then it’s going to be disastrous. It’s going to be too late for both human health and the environment.”

¹ See Diet Science: Healthy Humans, Healthy Planet by Jacob Sweet in Harvard Magazine, March-April 2020

De-Stress With Mindfulness

My last post focused on the pandemic and the actions that my household is taking in response to it. This week, things have gotten more serious. Monday, our governor issued an executive order that calls for home isolation except to secure food and prescription medicine. Workers associated with essential services may go to work; all others must telecommute. It’s a troubling time.

In the midst of all this turmoil, I attended a virtual class on stress management and the immune response courtesy of my local Yoga/Tai Chi studio. Master Brian started the session by reminding us that we cannot control external circumstances. In fact, it creates stress and strain if we try to control them. We’ll get tossed about in waves of thoughts and emotions tied to outside events and information. We’ll lose our ability to stay grounded, to see things clearly, and to take right action. And we’ll weaken our ability to combat infection disease should we be exposed to it.

These observations resonate clearly with a post I wrote two-plus years ago entitled Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. It provided high level findings from Dr. Robert Sapolsky’s book by the same name. In it, he notes that chronic stress gives rise to hypertension, excess fatty acids/glucose/cholesterol, digestive disruption, bone disintegration, immune system suppression, memory decline, and sleep deprivation. In short, it damages vital systems, weakens the body’s defense mechanisms, and elevates the risk of illness and death.

While I’m seeing products that purport to bolster immune response fly off the shelves, I’m not hearing many folks talk about stress management and its role in bolstering immunity. Yet I suspect that managing stress is a far more effective strategy for immune system support than loading up on supplements.

Our exposure to news outlets and social media isn’t helping. It’s all gloom and doom. I get it; the pandemic is frightening. Its global impact has been devastating, and there’s no end in sight. We may need to hear how bad things are to get with the program on making sacrifices to keep ourselves and others safe. And yet a steady diet of that kind of reporting is not good for stress management. If you’ve already got the message, it’s probably best to be a little less informed.

We need to create space between all that external stuff and our conscious awareness. When the gap is small, things that happen outside can hit us and knock us off our feet. They can take over our consciousness and stress us out. When the gap is large, we can simply watch what’s happening and remain unaffected. We can live in a state of total presence. We can let go of expectations tied to the external world and focus on the power and centeredness of our interior life.

Admittedly, I’m not stellar when it comes to practicing presence. I get distracted easily, and unfavorable news can cause me to ruminate and worry. So, I’m making a point of developing habits and practices that run counter to my ingrained tendencies. I’m journaling in the morning to get the noise out of my head, onto paper, and then into the “circular file.” I’m tuning in to my daily Yoga-Tai-Chi (on-line!) class to encourage the practice of presence. And I’m establishing routines that create a sense of normalcy despite living in decidedly abnormal times. It all helps.

I’ve read and written about meditation but haven’t started a practice of it. It’s an auspicious time for me to work on quieting my body and mind. One step at a time. One day at a time.

A Pandemic Hits Home

This past week sent shock waves through our nation once again. I’ve experienced them before. I witnessed the oil crisis of the 1970s with long lines at every gas station. I lived in the SF Bay Area during the Loma Prieta earthquake and its aftermath. We’d moved to Raleigh NC in time to catch Hurricane Fran and the devastation it wreaked on our town. And I joined the nation in mourning the loss of life and sense of security with the terrorist attacks of 2001. I know the anxious feeling that uncertainty brings, and I tell myself that we shall get through it. But I surely do not like it.

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic one week ago. Federal, state, and local governments have been taking action to restrict travel and establish a measure of social distancing in an attempt to contain the outbreak. As a country, we are scrambling to establish appropriate testing protocols and capacity to identify and (I hope) quarantine affected parties. We have a pressing need to flatten the growth rate of infection so as not to overwhelm our healthcare system. And yet some folks do not take the disease seriously based on the relatively small number of confirmed cases reported to date.

Here’s why I take it seriously:

Confirmed cases are likely grossly underreported given the relatively small number of tests performed to date.
Many people present mild symptoms and, therefore, do not realize that they are carriers of the disease.
The virus appears to have staying power on surfaces that have come into contact with an infected person, thereby increasing its transmission rate.
Death rates are disproportionately high, especially for older persons. (My husband and I are older adults!) Those with severe symptoms often require hospitalization to avoid becoming a statistic. They may require a lengthy convalescence and may not recover fully.
The growth rate of cases has been exponential; demand for hospital intervention can rapidly outpace capacity.

I had an especially nasty bout with the flu 5 years ago. While it did not rise to the level of hospitalization, I have a keen sense for how “severe symptoms” present and the reality of never quite getting back to “normal” again. I have no desire to experience that again!

We’ve opted to practice social distancing and home isolation. We’ll venture forth to address necessities, e.g., to secure food and prescription medicine. We’ll maintain a discrete distance from others when out and wash our hands thoroughly upon our return. In short, we’ll err on the side of caution to protect ourselves and others.

Meanwhile, we’ll take the opportunity to attend to some long-standing projects that have been on the “to do” list but just never gurgled up to high priority. For example:

We’ve reached out to our attorney to update our estate plans. We have been meaning to do it for ages. While I don’t anticipate them having to go into effect, we’ll feel comforted in knowing that we’ve done a yeoman’s job preparing for worst-case scenarios.
We’ve updated our emergency suppliers to hold us over if we need to shelter in place for 2-4 weeks.
We finished planting all the trees and shrubs for our updated front and back yards. We’ll pay closer attention to them going forward. It’s great exercise!
I’ll be catching up on sewing projects that have been nagging at me for weeks (if not months!)
We’ll finally get around to going through our closets and garage to identify things that we no longer use or need. I’m not sure when we’ll be able to dispose of them, but at least the hard work of going through everything will be behind us!
We’ll both catch up on “office work” that proves time-consuming, mildly tedious, and worth doing.
We’ll exercise consistently, eat well, and get plenty of rest.
We’ll make the most out of the quality time that we get to spend together.
We’ll practice gratitude for all the things that we have and be mindful of others whose predicaments are more precarious than ours.

I’m still unsettled by the uncertainty that surrounds me. But I will do my best to keep this household healthy and upbeat. Fortunately, having a blissfully ignorant, unerringly jubilant Scottish terrier helps!

Daily “Tricks” to Support Weight Loss

In my final post on Dr. Michael Greger’s How Not to Diet: The Groundbreaking Science of Healthy, Permanent Weight Loss, I’ll cover the a few “tweaks” that he recommends to optimize a diet for weight loss. (He advises a consult with your doctor if you have any medical conditions or have difficulty with any of these recommendations.)

At Each Meal:

Drink 1-2 glasses of cool or cold water before eating.
Start each meal with “negative calorie” foods – e.g., an apple, a very light soup, or salad
Flavor meals (or a glass of water) with 2 teaspoons vinegar.
Focus on eating, not the TV, notepad, or smartphone.
Decrease bite size and eat slowly to allow for the 20 minutes necessary for your brain to catch up with your stomach.

Every day:

Take in 1/4 teaspoon black cumin powder.
Use 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder.
Use 1 teaspoon ground ginger or 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper.
Eat 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast. (When pre-packaged, it’s usually near the spice section. Otherwise, check out the bulk foods section.)
Take 1/2 teaspoon cumin with lunch and dinner.
Drink water, black coffee, or hibiscus tea during meals. Drink 3 cups of green tea daily between meals, waiting at least an hour after you finish eating.
Drink a glass of water hourly, fitting in at least 8 cups throughout the day.
Eat whole (intact) grains to make your microbiome happy. Flour doesn’t count.
Have your largest meals earlier in the day. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.
Confine your meals to a 12 hour window – e.g., 7:00am to 7:00pm.
Exercise 90 minutes daily. (For optimal results, wait 6 hours after your last meal – e.g., first thing in the morning.)
Weigh yourself regularly.
Work on establishing good habits (and breaking old ones) with a set of intentions – e.g., when I sit down to watch TV, I’ll drink a glass of water and work on a Sudoku puzzle to break the habit of snacking mindlessly. Take stock daily on how you’re doing. Adjust your list every 2 months.

Every night:

Fast after 7:00pm.
Get a good night’s sleep!

If any of these recommendations seems peculiar, I have a suggestion for you. Get a copy of Dr. Greger’s book and read it cover to cover! As I’d mentioned in the introductory post to this series, he provides nearly 5,000 citations of credible (vetted) scientific evidence for each one of his recommendations. And by investing the time to read this amazing book, it’ll help you reinforce your commitment to a healthier you!

Weight Loss Boosters

In my third installment of findings from Dr. Michael Greger’s How Not To Diet: The Groundbreaking Science of Healthy, Permanent Weight Loss, I’ll briefly summarize his weight loss boosters to help win the battle of the bulge.

Accountability: Group therapy, health coaches, and social support produce better results than going it alone. At a bare minimum, weigh yourself regularly to stay focused on your weight loss goals.

Amping AMPK: An AMP-activated protein kinase causes the body to switch from storing to burning fat. It also stimulates production of mitochondria, the energy engines inside our cells. Eat nightshade vegetables (bell peppers, eggplant, tomatoes), barberries, and up to 2 tablespoons vinegar daily.

Appetite Suppression: Ground flaxseed, cumin, and black cumin naturally tamp down our appetites.

Chronobiology: Take advantage of our body’s circadian rhythms by eating when we’re most likely to process food efficiently. The rule of thumb is: Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. And don’t snack at night!

Eating Rate: It takes ~20 minutes after we start eating for the brain to put the brakes on our appetites. Eat slowly. Opt for solid foods that require chewing. Even the sensations in the mouth can translate into the sensation of physical fullness. Ergo, nibble and savor rather than chomp and gulp!

Exercise Tweaks: As noted in a prior post, adjusting one’s diet is a far more effective strategy for weight loss than relying on exercise (although exercise confers many other benefits). Choose activities that you genuinely enjoy so that you will be less tempted to reward yourself with culinary treats for doing it.

Fat Blockers: Thylakoids in greens delay fat absorption and decrease ghrelin, the hunger hormone. Superstars include kale, collards, and arugula.

Habit Formation: Build healthy habits so that good food choices (not bad ones!) become automatic. Be intentional every time you put food in your mouth. Don’t eat on autopilot.

Hydration: Substitute water for sugary beverages. Drink filtered water to avoid impurities.

Inflammation Quenchers: Adopt a whole food plant-based diet to maximize anti-inflammatory food substances. Try goji berries (wolf berries); they have four times the antioxidants as other dried fruits. Add turmeric and nutritional yeast to your diet.

Intermittent Fasting: Front-end load calories every day; “fast” every evening after an early dinner. This practice has been associated with lower inflammation, better blood sugar, and improved weight maintenance.

Meal Frequency: The more frequently people eat, the more weight they tend to gain. Break the snacking habit and/or make it really inconvenient to do so.

Metabolic Boosters: Drinking 2 cups of (plain) water boosts the metabolism; doing so four times daily can wipe out 100 calories! Cold water takes more energy to process than warm water. Limit consumption to no more than 3 cups per hour to avoid overload on the liver.

Mild Trendelenburg: Drinking extra water also causes our blood capacity to expand which induces the heart to release atrial natriuretic factor (ATF), a fat burning hormone.

Negative Calorie Preloading: If you drink 2 cups of water or 1 cup of water-rich vegetables before a meal, you tend to eat less during the meal. Apples and grapefruits can produce the same effect, but other fruits did not pass muster. (The sweetness may be an appetite stimulant.)

Sleep Enhancement: When we sleep too little, we tend to crave unhealthy foods and gain weight. Excess weight can be a deterrent to a good night’s sleep due to indigestion, sleep apnea, or physical discomfort. Aim for 7 hours per night of sleep.

Stress Hormone Relief: Much like sleep deprivation, stress is associated with weight gain. (They don’t call it “comfort food” for nothing!) Stress-induced weight gain tends to lodge in the belly – the worst place for it! Remedies include exercise, laughter, yoga, massage, and mindfulness-based stress relief (MBSR).

Wall Off Your Calories: When eating whole foods and whole grains, calories get trapped in their cell walls. It passes through our elimination channel and never makes it inside us. So, that’s an easy way to limit caloric intake. So, for example, choose raw, unprocessed almonds instead of almond butter, or whole grains instead of a slice of whole wheat bread!

17 Characteristics of a Great Diet

As promised in my last post, I’m going to cover 17 characteristics of a great diet according to Dr. Michael Greger in his latest book, How Not to Diet: The Groundbreaking Science of Healthy, Permanent Weight Loss.

Anti-Inflammatory: Inflammation is our immune system’s response to unhealthy elements that invade our bodies. Processed foods and animal products are pro-inflammatory; whole plant foods, fiber, and phytonutrients are anti-inflammatory. Anti-inflammatory superstars include turmeric, ginger, raw garlic, green or black tea, and fiber.

Clean: Research connects chemical pollutants with obesity. The meat, poultry, and seafood industries have been plagued by obesogenic pollutants. Harmful substances can be present in canned goods and certain plastic containers. Pesticides also affect the obesity rate. The solution? Go organic, get to know the people who make your food, and learn to cook from scratch.

High in Fiber-Rich Foods: High fiber diets make us feel full by distending our bellies and delaying emptying into the intestines. Upon reaching the intestine, they block absorption of carbs and fats into the bloodstream and help curb our appetites. And, to top it off, the good bacteria in our gut biome love to feast on fiber!

High in Water-Rich Foods: Water adds bulk to what we eat without adding calories. Water-rich foods take more chewing action and have a dampening effect on stomach emptying. These built-in delays provide much needed time for our body to signal to our brain that we should stop eating!

Low Glycemic Load: These foods avoid sugar spikes in our bloodstream and the associated activation of the reward/craving centers in our brains. They help us burn more fat and result in less of a metabolic slowdown as we lose weight.

Low in Added Fat: Naturally low-fat foods encourage a higher burn rate in resting calories, and a higher percentage of their intake gets flushed down the toilet. Don’t be fooled by processed foods claiming “low fat” as they frequently contain extra sugar!

Low in Added Sugar: Sugar amps up our caloric intake, triggers an addictive response, and delivers no material nutritional value. What’s the number one strategy to avoid added sugar? Stop eating processed foods!

Low in Addictive Foods: The combination of sugar, fat, and salt revs up our craving engines and compels us to overeat nutritionally vacuous foods. Better to train our brains to enjoy healthy foods.

Low in Calorie Density: We’re designed to eat about 4-5 pounds of food per day. The body principally registers satiety by volume, not calories. So, it may be that obese individuals eat the same relative weight of food but simply ingest substantially more calories per mouthful.

Low in Meat: According to Dr. Greger, the odds of being obese increase by 18% for each 1% intake of calories by meat. This weight gain tends to settle in the abdomen.

Low in Refined Grains: Ultraprocessed food account for 58% of our daily intake. These refined grains contribute to weight gain far more than any other dietary and lifestyle factors. By contrast, whole grains increase satiety, increase our metabolic rate, and increase caloric loss via stool.

Low in Salt: Like sugar and fat, salt has an addictive quality that stimulates appetite and may encourage ingestion of sugary drinks.

Low Insulin Load: Sugar and meat protein cause insulin surges which, over time, result in cellular insulin resistance. High fat meals also diminish insulin sensitivity.

Microbiome Friendly: Our microbiome regulates our immune system, balances hormones, improves digestion, and makes life-sustaining vitamins. Every food choice affects our gut flora. A diverse gut flora supports lower body fat. Eat fiber-rich food (the real stuff, not fiber supplements).

Rich in Fruits and Vegetables: Such diets yield 17% lower odds of weight gain or abdominal obesity. Plant cells also affect gene expression in a way that promotes weight loss.

Rich in Legumes: The more beans you eat, the lower your body weight, waist size, saturated fat, and cholesterol intake. Beans also slow digestion and delay the return of hunger. And beans are packed with protein and fiber.

Satiating: We are built for gluttony. Our survival mechanisms were fine-tuned through thousands of years of scarcity. To keep our brains and hormones appropriately regulated, opt for fiber-rich, water-rich whole foods that suppress appetite. Make sure there’s ample variety in food selection to keep the mind and body happy.

Diet Beats Exercise for Weight Loss

I’ve been watching videos from Dr. Michael Greger’s nutrtionfacts.org website for the past two-and-a-half years. As noted in an earlier post, I’m impressed by Dr. Greger’s passion and integrity as well as the rigor with which he tackles nutrition research. So, I purchased his latest book – How Not to Diet: The Groundbreaking Science of Healthy, Permanent Weight Loss – as soon as it was published.

Given scads of diet books on the market, Dr. Greger set out to produce something unique – an evidence-based diet book for which the author had no personal financial incentive. (He donates all of the proceeds to charity.) It’s a 570-page tome jammed-packed with all kinds of valuable information and backed up by nearly 5,000 citations of scientific articles. (The team actually reviewed 500,000 peer-reviewed scientific publications to support this book!)

Here are a few of the attention-getting statistics that introduce the core of his content:

While the diet industry rakes in $50 billion per year in revenue, it’s plagued by a gaggle of “fake news.” All too often, the profit motive supersedes well-researched, unbiased academic scholarship.
Seventy-one percent of Americans are overweight; 40% are classified as obese. Perhaps even more startling, 90% of Americans are overfat. (That is, a lot of thin people have too little lean muscle mass!)
The rise in daily caloric intake more than accounts for our obesity epidemic. The U.S. produces 3,900 calories of food per person per day – far more than we need to sustain normal body weight.
Taste engineers in food processing companies strive to make their foods irresistibly desirable by tapping into the addictive properties of sugar, fat, and salt. Dr. Greger refers to their products as C.R.A.P. – i.e., Calorie Rich And Processed food.
The average child may watch upwards of 10,000 ads for C.R.A.P. foods in the course of a year.
Failure to turn the tide of obesity isn’t a matter of personal willpower. It also reflects a lack of political will. Food lobbyists influence government policy and work to suppress the stark truths about their products. Moreover, the sugar, fat, and meat industries receive substantial governmental subsidies.
The per capita lifetime cost of obesity (including lost productivity) equals ~$200,000.
Four million deaths annually can be traced to excess body fat.

The foregoing may not surprise you. But here’s a fact that probably will: Caloric intake, not physical activity, predicts weight gain. Moreover, the power of your genes is nothing compared to the power of your fork. Say what?

Body fat accumulates when Calories IN consistently tops Calories OUT. So how do we burn calories?

Our resting metabolic rate consumes 60% of our calories. It’s what we need to feed all of our cells and manage all of our bodily functions.
Twenty-five percent of our calories get used up supporting non-exercise physical activity – e.g., walking, hoofing up and down stairs, gardening, housework, cooking, etc.
Another 10% of our calories get used for thermogenesis, which is just a fancy word for the effort it takes to process food into usable substances (and eliminate the rest).
The remaining 5% gets burned off during exercise.

But wait – what about all those elite athletes who burn thousands of calories during their workouts? Sure – their Calories OUT equation looks a whole lot different from the Average Joe. But here are all the ways the Average Joe thwarts the benefits reaped by exercise:

Rewards self with a sugary protein bar immediately after working out
Adds more calories to daily consumption than gets burned off by exercise under the guise of increased appetite
Spends more time as a couch potato, thereby dialing down the burn available through non-exercise physical activity

Exercise most assuredly adds years to our lives and life to our years by stimulating our cardiovascular system, building strong bones and muscles, and increasing our flexibility and agility. But we can’t hang our weight loss hats on this strategy alone. We must watch what we eat AND make sure we’re getting sufficient non-exercise activity. (Just move!)

In my next post, I’ll cover Dr. Greger’s 17 key ingredients for a successful weight loss program.

Death and Diet

In 2013, the National Institute of Health published a research paper entitled “The state of US health, 1990-2010: burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors.” Its analysis and comparison with 34 other industrialized nations provided valuable input for national health policy. Here are some interesting facts:

The US spends the most per capita on health care.
US life expectancy increased from 75.2 years in 1990 to 78.2 years in 2010.
Healthy Life Expectancy increased from 65.8 years in 1990 to 68.1 years in 2010.
Among the 34 countries, the US rank for age-standardized death rate went from 18^th in 1990 to 27^th in 2010.

To summarize: We spend a disproportionate amount of money on healthcare. While life expectancy has increased, the average person still experiences 10 years of disability. And the US is falling behind other countries in its mortality rate. Not such great news!

Roughly three-quarters of all US deaths can be attributed to one of 10 causes. Here are the statistics gathered by the Center for Disease Control:

I know a lot of people who think that we do not have much control over when and how we die. They think that maladies come with old age and that something is bound to get us. But when you look at the data, it turns out that we have much more control than you might think. According to the aforementioned State of US Health report, here are the top 10 primary risk factors that lead to premature death:

What’s the number one risk factor? Diet! And if you’ve read my other posts, you’ll see how diet impacts blood pressure, body mass index, plasma glucose, and cholesterol. So, in reality, diet is responsible for the 1^st, 3^rd, 4^th, 6^th, and 7^th leading risk factors for premature death. And Dr. T. Colin Campbell makes the connection between diet and cancer in his book, The China Study.

Bottom Line: Change your diet and you just might save your life!

Healthy Lifestyle

Ideas to Nourish the Body, Mind, and Spirit